By Ray Walton
The Thing from Another World (1951) ⭐️⭐️⭐.5
A group of scientists discover a spaceship at an Arctic research centre along with the pilot in a frozen state. Things go haywire when the pilot regains consciousness and spreads havoc.
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The Thing from Another World is often credited as one of the first sci-fi horror films to merge Cold War paranoia with extraterrestrial terror. Though produced by Howard Hawks and officially directed by Christian Nyby, many film historians believe Hawks had a strong directorial hand, which might explain the film’s snappy, overlapping dialogue and tight pacing. The creature itself, played by James Arness (later famous for Gunsmoke), was intentionally left mostly unseen, proving that in early horror, suggestion was often scarier than spectacle.
So, an unpopular opinion of mine: I respect John Carpenter, but I don’t love The Thing. In fact, when it comes to Carpenter, the only thing of his that I love is his Masters of Horror episode, Cigarette Burns. I actually liked this more than the remake. I will acknowledge that it is more by the numbers and has the camp you would expect from a 50s creature feature, but at the time it was revolutionary. You can sense an enthusiasm in the people responsible for this film that they are trying out something that was new to cinema. While it isn’t nearly as tense as Carpenter’s film, the characters work well off of each other, and throughout their terrifying ordeal, they are still able to maintain a sense of humor, which I always appreciate. If you don’t laugh, you will lose your mind. This and the remake manage to be their own thing. There is no body snatching here, just a bloodthirsty alien. What the movie lacks in scares, and makes up for with character banter and a satisfying climax. Considering that Carpenter’s remake of this is considered one of the best horror movies ever made, the original’s influence is obvious.
NightTide Magazine 
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